Tiny Angry Book Nerd

Obsessed with any & all books, especially fiction, especially YA and fantasy. I'm always looking for someone who'll geek out about books with me.

[nerdygaymormon]

Abortion

I know this topic makes people uncomfortable. I will not be discussing the procedure but rather religious perspectives about abortion. 

I think it’s a complex topic with the need for much nuance, but I increasingly find religious people prefer simple black-and-white thinking on this issue. I hope by sharing the information below it helps to reorient us to be more open to complex views.

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I’m a Mormon, which means I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My church’s position is a woman shouldn’t seek an abortion unless

the mother’s life or health are in danger

the pregnancy is a result of incest or rape

the fetus is determined to have severe defects that will prevent it from living long after birth

That’s a pretty strict standard. For this to be meaningful, abortions need to be legal and safe for a person to obtain.

In the decades since this policy was created in the 1970′s, many members have shifted their views to be even more strict. They question why a fetus should have to die for the circumstances in which it was conceived, and they also tend to disregard the part about the health of the mother being in danger (including mental health). Some even have a preferences for the baby’s life over that of the mother’s. 

I think many Christian churches have similar teachings and this is what their members are familiar with. However, I don’t think most are as familiar with the Biblical teachings on abortion or how many churches thought of fetuses prior to the 1980′s. 

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Many like to point to the 10 Commandments given in Exodus 20 where it says “thou shalt not kill.” For Mormons, Doctrine & Covenants 59 lists the commandments, and it expands on that commandment by saying “nor kill, nor do anything like unto it.” (D&C 59:6).

However, this leaves out Genesis where man wasn’t considered alive until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. That first breath came to be seen as what determined if someone is alive or not. 

Judaism doesn’t consider a fetus to have a soul, and therefore terminating a pregnancy isn’t a crime to God. This would explain polls done about views on abortion and are broken down by religion, Jews in the US are the strongest supporters with about 85% support. From the Jewish point of view, a fetus is a potential life and should be protected. However, that clump of cells is not yet a life and therefore the mother’s life take precedence. 

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Exodus 21: 22-23 “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,”

Let’s put those verses in more plain English. If men are fighting (strive) and a woman falls down and miscarries, the man is responsible to pay a fine to the family. But if the woman dies (mischief follows), the punishment is death, a life for a life.

In other words, a fetus is not considered a life.

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Jewish law put preservation of human life over nearly every other concern. 

The Talmud, a Jewish text of centuries of Jewish thought and debate, considers the fetus to be fluid during the first 40 days of a woman’s pregnancy, and is considered an appendage of the mother until birth. 

Once the head has emerged, a baby is considered a “soul” or “spirit.” Israelite women were permitted to seek an abortion even if her life wasn’t in peril. The standard is that she has ‘great need’ and there’s some ambiguity around that, but the need to save her from a great pain is allowed. Psychological needs are considered real.

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In the book of Numbers we have an interesting Biblical message, one that God gave directly to Moses. 

If a man finds his wife unfaithful, she’s brought to the priest and she drinks a potion. If she were pregnant with a child from a man other than her husband, the potion causes the fetus to be lost. God implemented this form of abortion to deal with jealous husbands and adultery!

It’s a long passage, but here’s the Biblical text from Number 5: 11-31

11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; 14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord: 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: 20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: 21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; 22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: 24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. 25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: 26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; 30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. 31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity

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There are two passages from the Hebrew Bible used by anti-abortion activists. Each is an example of God knowing the person before they were born

Jeremiah 1:4-5 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Isaiah 49:1  The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

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We should also look at what the New Testament has to say on the topic. 

It is silent.

Jesus said nothing about abortion. 

However, it is clear throughout both the Old & New Testament that God places an emphasis on the value of life.

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I suppose the question is “when does life begin?” 

In Judaism the answer is that life begins at birth.

In Christianity this question has been debated for centuries, but the general view was life began at first breath. 

This view evolved and many Christians came to see life as beginning when a spirit enters the fetus. This is called the “quickening” or “ensoulment,” and prior to that an abortion didn’t kill a life. 

The “quickening” or “ensoulment” takes place when movement is first felt within the womb and pregnancy is certain.

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In the United States, one of the big divides between Catholics and Protestants were their views on the fetus as a living person. Protestants were generally free to employ birth control and to seek abortions, while Catholics were not. 

It’s not nice, but much has been written about how forbidding birth control and abortions cheapens life. Having a child every year or two often resulted in poverty, stressed the parent’s marriage. With parents unable to meet the needs for their large family, they often lived in cramped quarters, sickness would spread quickly, and they had high rates of childhood death. 

Allowing a woman or a couple to postpone or prevent births until they’re financially and mentally ready, and spacing out children to as to not overtax the mother and her resources were seen as giving children and mothers better lives and best chances to survive and thrive.

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Until 1979, the prevailing evangelical church stance on abortion was “life began at first breath and not at conception.” That’s a full 6 years after the US Supreme Court ruling of Roe vs Wade that protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. 

Why 1979? Evangelical leaders were focused on denying President Jimmy Carter a second term because he was denying tax exemptions to all racially-segregated schools in the United States (including Bob Jones University). They had to integrate or lose their non-profit status and also would be forbidden from receiving federal funds.

However, saying that we want to still be able to be racist policies wasn’t a big selling point, so instead they turned their focus to overturning the 1973 abortion ruling from the Supreme Court and the need to elect Ronald Reagan so he’d appoint justices who would overturn that decision. 

While we’ve had decades of legislation to severely limit a woman’s access to abortion in the United States, we’ve not seen much effort to change the laws which do not consider a fetus a living person. That’s right, US law generally follows the convention that a fetus is not a person until it has been born.

Consider the following: 

A woman can’t take out a life insurance policy on her fetus. If she miscarries, then she’d receive that insurance payout.

If a fetus is a baby, men should start paying child support from the moment the pregnancy is confirmed

If we considered a fetus to be a baby, low-income women should receive more food and welfare assistance for their unborn baby

If the fetus is a baby, we should be able to deduct them from our income taxes the way that born children can be deducted

Unborn children are not counted in the census

States have laws against assaulting people, but if a pregnant woman is attacked, the attacker is not charged with child abuse

If we truly considered a fetus a living person, women should’ve received an additional payment each time the government sent some fiscal help during the pandemic

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If you’re wondering what my personal views are about abortion, click this link. 

I personally would like for abortions to be legal, safe and rare. There’s many things government can do to reduce the number of people seeking abortions. 

I’m wary of outright bans on abortion, even with some exceptions about the viability of the fetus. 

As a gay man, I know what it’s like to have people who are not affected by the laws they’re passing make decisions about what they feel is morally acceptable for me. Not so long ago it was illegal for gay people to marry each other, and for most of my life gay sex was illegal. 

[badgrishaverseaus]

crooked kingdom modern au where the crows are the reddit sub that crashes the stock market with gamestop stock

[tinyangrybooknerd]

“We want you to break into the Smithsonian.”

“Always a pleasure,” Nick said.

Kate raised an eyebrow at Nick. “You’ve done it before?”

Nick shrugged. “Nobody goes to DC without visiting the Smithsonian.”

the fox and o'hare series // janet evanovich and lee goldberg

[callisto42]

“One does not simply ring Roland.”

Oh boy. I supposed I would get a lecture on the dangers of wandering into Mordor next.

The Kate Daniels series // Ilona Andrews

[tinyangrybooknerd]

Enter my lair, said the dragon. I have shiny treasure for you to play with, I’ll keep you warm, and if it suits my purpose, I’ll chain you to the floor and kill your client by throwing quarters at him with my magic.

White Hot, by Ilona Andrews

[tinyangrybooknerd]

All men are liars. All women are liars, too.

[tinyangrybooknerd]

As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

[tinyangrybooknerd]

"Vampire politics make the very complicated dance of manners that is werewolf protocol look like the Hokey Pokey." The Mercedes Thompson series, by Patricia Briggs

[callisto42]

She was clever, and beautiful, and hard as burnished bronze.

Rook, by Sharon Cameron.

[tinyangrybooknerd]

“Nothing says you're sorry like a dead bunny.”

[tinyangrybooknerd]

“You keep bring this ‘illegal’ thing up as if it means something to me.”

[tinyangrybooknerd]

Showalter had said we could keep what we found, hadn’t he?

[tinyangrybooknerd]

Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.

[tinyangrybooknerd]

“You've made yourself into a challenge. Now I'll have to seduce you out of principle.”

[tinyangrybooknerd]

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

[tinyangrybooknerd]

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

[tinyangrybooknerd]

This above all: To thine own self be true.